RCN cable expansion digs at homeowners

Some residents of Buckingham Drive in Allen Township are not happy with… (PAUL MUSCHICK, THE MORNING…)

August 12, 2012|Paul Muschick | The Watchdog

Homeowners on Buckingham Drive in Allen Township realize they can't stop RCN from digging up their yards to install cable service in their neighborhood because the work is being done in public easements.

But they don't think it's too much to ask that their properties be restored to their original condition, which they say hasn't happened.

About six weeks after the work, some yards hadn't been reseeded. A pipe still protruded from Carol McCullough's lawn. And don't even get Maureen Vooz and Rhett Setzer started about the shared driveway and sidewalk in front of their homes.

The driveway is brand-new, but only because RCN's contractors broke the old one when they pushed the cables through the earth beneath it, they said.

"It looked like a speed bump," Setzer said.

They said it was one of about seven driveways damaged in their Penn's Chase neighborhood.

Their neighbor, Dave Whiteman, told me he couldn't figure out why a worker was driving a pickup truck back and forth across the driveway. Then he saw the bump.

"That's when I realized he was trying to flatten their driveway," Whiteman said.

The work, which started around June 20, didn't go smoothly on his property, either. He said workers struck a water pipe and tried to fix it themselves until Whiteman demanded they call a plumber.

I contacted RCN after I met with residents recently, and the cable company sent a supervisor to the neighborhood last week to try to smooth things over.

There were problems with the "source of labor" used by a subcontractor on the project, and that subcontractor has been replaced, RCN spokeswoman Joanne Guerriero told me. She would not identify the company.

"This is the first time that we've had multiple issues in a neighborhood like this," Guerriero said.

Vooz told me she kept her complaint simple when she met with a manager for RCN's contractor after her driveway and paver stones bordering the driveway were damaged: "I want it to look like you've never been here," she said she told him.

She's still waiting for that to happen.

The driveway was replaced, but the work left parts of their sidewalk cracked and streaked with asphalt, Vooz and Setzer said. The asphalt also has encroached on Vooz's decorative paver stones, sealing some of them in and knocking them out of alignment.

After Setzer complained, the sidewalk was scrubbed, but Setzer believes some of the cleaners damaged a few spots on the new driveway. Other sidewalks on Buckingham Drive don't look as if they've been cleaned.

Guerriero told me the sidewalks will be cleaned and a landscaper will be hired to deal with issues, including the paver stones. She said the other issues would be addressed with each homeowner.

"Certainly, we've told the contractor some of this is just not acceptable," Guerriero said.

She said grass has been reseeded in areas where work is complete. She said it had been planted previously in some areas and didn't take.

She said RCN also is changing how it communicates with property owners on future projects. She said it will handle that itself and set up a dedicated phone line to take calls that will be monitored regularly, instead of having contractors also talking with property owners.

McCullough contacted The Morning Call about the problems in her neighborhood, which included a hole in her yard where the dirt fill had sunk. She said the cable box RCN's contractors installed wasn't even put in the right place.

"It is disgusting that a company as well-known as RCN would do this to the same people they are hoping will become customers one day," McCullough wrote in an email.

Guerriero told me the cable box will be moved to where McCullough prefers it.

Vooz said she was told her sidewalk would be replaced and her pavers would be fixed. Setzer said he was told a landscaper will be there Monday and a paving company later will examine the driveway. He wants a new driveway because he is not happy with the quality of the replacement drive.

McCullough said she wishes Allen Township had done more to help residents. It has some say in what's going on because RCN operates through a franchise agreement with the township in exchange for paying the township 5 percent of the cable revenue it receives there.

Township Manager Ilene Eckhart told me residents complained about property damage, late working hours and lack of notice about the work, among other things.

The township's franchise agreement requires RCN to replace or restore all pavement, sidewalks, lawns and driveways "in as good a condition as existed before … work was commenced" and compensate property owners for any damages.